CAMILLE BOHANNON

Twenty-three years after its 1948 premiere, "The Ed Sullivan
Show" had its final broadcast on June 6, 1971.

For more than two decades, Sullivan’s variety show was the
premiere television showcase for entertainers of all stripes,
including borscht-belt comedians, plate-spinning vaudeville
throwbacks and, most significantly, some of the biggest and
most current names in rock ‘n’ roll.

In its first eight years of existence, there was no such thing as
rock ‘n’ roll to be featured on the program originally called
"Toast of the Town," yet even its first broadcast made music
history when Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and
Oscar Hammerstein II gave the world its first taste of the score
from their upcoming musical, South Pacific.